97 Conn Valley Eloge - Help!!!

[Dabeaz]

Properly stored. Opened without decanting, poured a round. Nose/taste kind of "pharmaceutical". Have experienced this with other older wines.Should I decant these wines prior to drinking?

[wondersofwine]

Welcome to the board, Dabaez. Probably should decant this. Older Burgundies might oxidize if decanted too much in advance of drinking, but sturdier, more tannic wines probably need some time for aeration.

[Dabeaz]

Thanks. Have been reading your and WW posts fro some time now. I try to buy quality juice based on research. I do ok on recent vintages but its hit & miss on the aged stuff. Are there any guidelines for decanting?

[Innkeeper]

We decant all Cabs. Older ones carefully, younger ones glug, glug.

[winoweenie]

Hi Dabeaz and a belated welcome to the board. Am mystified why this really superb bottling has the medicinal notes you experienced. Have had at least 30-40 bottles of this juice and have never had this phenomenon. You say "properly stored". That means to me you've had this in your cellar since 1990. The 97's I have still have at least another 2-4 of improvement and should hold for another 8-12 at peak. Very puzzling!!!!! WW

[Dabeaz]

Thanks for the replies. I have been drinking/collecting since the 2001's were released.My cellar currently holds wines from Shafer,Phelps,Pine Ridge,Ferrari Carano,Provenance, and Stags Leap to name a few.Wanted to sample older vintages. Tried a 91' Insignia, best I have had to date. Some of the others have not been so good.I don't yet have the experience/knowledge as yourselves and am looking for advice. Thanks again.

[TheEngineer]

With those wines, we'd be interesting in coming over and trying them to let you know! [img]http://wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

I think thought I might be in the same boat as you in terms of when I started. In the beginning I also preferred much more the new fresh wines and it took time to start to learn to appreciate older wines. It might be jsut that at this point in time, your palate (which is different for everyone) is not really geared towards the older stuff. Of course, please forgive me if I'm wrong on this as this was only meant to show you my experience.

BTW, Welcome to the board and I hope you stick around and post on some of these nice wines. [img]http://wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]